Notes / Commercial Description:
In Berliner Weisse we think we’ve found the perfect style for our summer Cellar Reserve. This north German wheat beer is traditionally brewed and released very fresh. It has a light body from the wheat and refreshingly tart acidity that make it a perfect summer thirst-quencher. Its lemony tartness is provided by a secondary fermentation with lactobacillus, the same microorganism that’s responsible for yogurt’s tang. That tartness increases and improves with age, so the people of Berlin are known to buy extra bottles to bury in their gardens for two years or more.

As usual with our Cellar Reserves, we’ve taken a traditional style and added our own twist. In this case we’ve tripled the strength over the traditional beer, which should only increase its aging potential. For the primary fermentation we used a traditional Bavarian hefeweizen yeast that produces soft notes of banana and clove. We followed that with lactobacillus and six months in conditioning to create a complex fruity acidity that compliments the soft sweet malt tones and a unique ale that is both fulfilling and refreshing.

Not as tart as expected, just enough perhaps. I know this is an amped up version though it could have been labeled as a helles weizenbock and we'd all have a different mindset here. Not a huge problem with me though, just hoped to have my palate puckered.

The beer pours a golden-yellow color with a white head. The aroma is full of peaches and wheat, with some light tartness. The flavor is very similar. There is quite a bit of fruit - mainly peaches and lemons - as well as some wheat. There is a good bit of flavor, but the tartness level is very light. Thin mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

A: Hazy amber with a champagne like white foam cap that quickly fills the glass and then drops to a thick fizzy film.
S: Light horseblanket and lemony tartness, light bread.
T: Lemony tart light fruit, white bread. F: Very effervescent, refreshing and light.
O: This has twice the alcohol of a traditional Berliner Weiss but it is ery refreshing.

Hazed light golden and yellow with a thin white head that leaves spots and irregular webs of lace down the glass. Pretty and appropriate for the style.

The aroma is a combination of lemon and wheat with some definite acidity and sour notes. Though there is also a bit of alcohol heat sprinting from the glass, which seems absurd for the style...but then again, this one has 7+ percent ABV. What the...?

The flavor is definitely acidic and sour with some lemon and wheat, but the syrupy mouthfeel and overall fruity sweetness is more than distracting. This is incredibly sweet--not a hallmark of the style.

Thick, syrupy, and heavy. Not good for the style. Not good, ever. Cloying, sticky, thick: not words I ever want to associate with a berliner.

A radical departure from one of my favorite styles. I will not have this again.

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a tall pint glass. Bottled on 5/23/14.

Appearance: Pours a very cloudy yellowish golden orange with a lot of rising bubbles. About one finger of white head that fades into a thin patchy layer. Leaves a decent amount of lacing.

Smell: A funky, tart, and fruity wheat forward aroma with hints of spice and citrus. Wheat and pale malt with hints of straw, grains, cracker, yeast, and caramel. Big hints of the lacto funk. Spice hints of coriander, clove, and pepper. Good fruit presence with zesty hints of lemon, orange, banana, and pear. A pretty decent Hefeweizen like aroma.

Had this at the Reno Whole Foods tap room. Poured out, light yellow, mega hazy, pristine virgin like white head on it, about .67" in height. Aroma, whoa, too much perfume, clove and otherwise what seemed like belgian yeast moreso than a German hefe. Good German berlinner's don't smell like this, why should this one?

Taste, jeez, same thing, the mild tartness and wheat is overcome by clove, banana and just a general perfume like taste to the beer. The alcohol is way too high for style, and the taste buds too. This beer needs more tartness, sourness, more of a grist wheat mouthfeel, the correct yeast strain, no clove, no banana, some lemon, just not that heavy yeast presence, less alcohol.

12 oz bottle of Snarling Badger with bottled on date of 23 June 2014.
Pours clear, light amber with a small head.
The aroma is an unappealing mix of yeast, citrus, bready malts and funk.
Flavor: mildly tart with a mostly lemony citrus tone. Some bready light grains.

O: get past the aroma and you'll find a quite drinkable weisse beer with well hidden ABV.

A heavily clouded pale gold color, this beer grows a moderately sized and extremely fluffy pure white head. Retention is pretty good, and the lacing is in the same moderation as the head itself in quantity and heaviness.
There's all kinds of everything going on in this aroma, and it's a little confusing. It wants to come together, but doesn't quite manage cohesion. I do get the notes I want, with tartness, funk and some sour fruits, but the phenols, light bitterness, grass/hay and bready malts complementing it add confusion rather than working together.
The flavor offer much of the same, and the boozy heat adds another element of confusion even as some of the aroma's confusion eases off. Lots of yeast, earth, tartness, sourness, funk, fruits, dryness and sweetness competing; it's interesting for sure. Ultimately, it's actually pretty good, just difficult to put together.
The feel moves back and forth between tangy/leafy dryness and fruity sorts of sweetness, but it's got the light sting on the tongue that doesn't hit too hard. The odd booziness gets to the mouthfeel just a little, but it's this beer's best aspect.

Poor execution. I would expect more of a sourness and lower abv from the style. Yeasty and some sour fruit aroma. Cloudy deep yellow. Boozy. Only a little tartness, should be fruity sourness or significant lactic. So-so drinkability.Medium mouthfeel.

12oz bottle (06/30/15 bottled on date) into a pint glass.
Hazy straw colored body with no head.
Aroma is clearly sour.
Taste is lemony yeast and some sour. If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a cider. It's very refreshing, dry, and no hint of the higher alchohol. That could be trouble.